Chapter 149 – Forced Into The Sect

Gu Suihan gasped in horror and stared fearfully at the woman. His heart instantly sank into despair.

He was so sure he was doomed. Not only were these people going to be ungrateful, they were also going to torture him to death. Or at least, that’s what he thought.

“Oh?” The senior sister’s pretty eyes suddenly lit up as she stared unblinkingly at the compass in her hands.

Shuang’er turned to look at the compass as well and exclaimed, “Complete understanding with the sword and a natural formation of a sword will?”

“What the…” Gu Suihan stared at the dazzling compass blankly. He had no idea what was going on at all.

The woman looked at him and asked, “Do you have any ancestors who were cultivators?”

“Nope!”

She refused to give up. After thinking of other possibilities, she asked, “You…learned martial arts from a young age?”

“Nope!”

“Have you learned swordsmanship before? Do you find that you learn sword techniques very easily?”

Gu Suihan couldn’t stand the hot gazes of the two ladies and rubbed his nose a little shyly as he said with some embarrassment, “Actually…I’ve only used a knife to try and kill a chicken! And…it didn’t die.”

“Good heavens, he’s a genius!”

“Simply amazing!”

“The heavens are watching over the Youthful Clarity Sect!”

The two ladies spoke in low voices to one another as they gave Gu Suihan a strange look.

“Are you…done asking me questions? Can I go now?” asked Gu Suihan in a shaky voice as he shuddered. The two of them kept looking at him like he was some great treasure or something.

“NO!” They both turned to glare at Gu Suihan.

“But why?”

“You have a lot of potential for becoming a cultivator.”

“What has that got to do with anything?”

“If you don’t cultivate, then you’ll be wasting your talent. If I don’t get you to learn swordsmanship, that’ll be like throwing a treasure into the trash!”

“But I still want to get married…”

“There are plenty of pretty and lovely female cultivators in the sect.”

Gu Suihan asked meekly, “Can I…can I say no?”

“No, you can’t!” Shuang’er gesticulated wildly. She was so excited, it was as though she was seeing some rare item for the first time.

Gu Suihan racked his brains to find another excuse. “I, uh, I might not be able to get used to such a simple and quiet life.”

“That’s alright. After some time, you’ll get used to it.”

“I’ll…I’ll…get used…used to it?!” Gu Suihan felt like crying now.

“We shouldn’t delay anymore. Let’s go.” The woman seemed afraid that Gu Suihan might try to escape again, so she knocked him out with a strike to the back of his neck, picked him up, and flew off with Shuang’er.

Gu Suihan felt a breeze before…he completely conked out. Just before losing consciousness, one thought popped up in his head: Cultivators also engaged in human trafficking!

“He’s really…incredible. That’s how formidable someone at Divine Soul is!” The Huangquan Evil Ghost had hidden in the shadows and concealed its presence as it watched the trio fly off into the night. After a short while, it let out a sigh, then quickly followed behind them.

Meanwhile, in an abandoned pavilion in the Devil Abyss.

A human-shaped creature covered in gray dust that resembled a statue suddenly trembled.

“It’s…almost…time!”

A sulfuric miasma filled the air all around the pavilion, so visibility was limited to only a distance of three feet. On the ground was a dense network of trenches that looked like a spiderweb.

From time to time, wisps of grayish-black mist would rise from the trenches. They smelled terrible.

Also, a hair-raising low roar or long howl could be heard from beneath the ground.

In the middle of the pavilion stood one ancient well.

There was no water in the well. The golden runes all over it kept wriggling like there were ants all over the well. From time to time, a thick black smoke would rush upwards from inside the well, accompanied by a terrifying howl.

After that, the runes would suddenly seem to come alive, and the laws they dictated would be activated. A golden light would swirl around the top of the well, as a thick layer of qi would form several chains of runes, ensuring that the black smoke could not come out. The human-shaped creature would then let out a long sigh and execute a powerful spell that would be brought down powerfully on the black smoke.

The black smoke would wail indignantly and fall back to the bottom of the well.

“It’s getting…more and more frequent!”

Over at the Youthful Clarity Sect.

Shuang’er and her senior sister flew rapidly back to the sect headquarters and flung Gu Suihan into the main hall.

“What…wait, who is this?” The two deacons in the hall stared strangely at Gu Suihan, who was bound with so many ropes, he looked more like a caterpillar. It took them a moment to realize this was actually a person.

“This fellow is a genius who has a complete understanding of the sword and a natural formation of sword will. He saved Shuang’er but refuses to become a cultivator or join the Youthful Clarity Sect. I had no choice but to bring him back like this.”

Shuang’er’s senior sister noticed that Gu Suihan hadn’t given up struggling despite being all tied up on the floor and was actually trying to roll out of the hall. Her lips twitched as she shot out a beam of qi that surrounded Gu Suihan and lifted him right off the floor.

“Jingjing, you’re…you’re really getting more and more violent these days!” A voice resounded from outside the door. A man in a green robe and a chiseled jaw came walking in and stared strangely at Shuang’er’s senior sister, who looked a little embarrassed by herself.

He glanced at the still struggling Gu Suihan suspended in the air and was quite impressed as he thought, “What an energetic fellow. He’s already in this state, but he’s still trying his best to escape.”

“So, you’re…forcing him to join the sect?” The two deacons had a gleam in their eyes as they looked at Gu Suihan. Their greedy stare made the struggling boy shudder.

“We’ll do just that!” The two deacons knew what each other was thinking about after a quick exchange of glances.

They had lost a lot of disciples to that secret realm, so all seven major sects were in mourning. The sect was no longer bustling with activity, and they were left with very few people. The internal disciples were the pillars of strength of the sect, and they were also meant to be sent to the Upper World.

After suffering such a severe loss, they were still left with a lot of external disciples, but most of them didn’t have much potential. They barely made it to Foundation Establishment, and there was no way they’d reach Origin Core.

They didn’t even have enough good ones left for them to mix in these lousy ones without anyone noticing.

They were left with no other choice. The higher-ups of every sect put up a mission to look for talented people with high levels of aptitude.

Some external disciples who were desperate for more cultivating resources and knew they couldn’t rise above their current status if they didn’t do anything instantly went crazy. All of them left the sect to scour the Earth for talented people, hoping to round up hundreds of new disciples in order to chalk up brownie points with the sect.

But only the external disciples were going crazy. The few internal disciples left behind merely laughed at the mission. They would only try to persuade someone to join the sect if they were good-looking.

This was the first time an internal disciple literally kidnapped someone and stormed the sect hall.

This caused a commotion as disciples gathered outside the hall and kept trying to see what was so different about this young man struggling in the air.

“Take his soul fire!” shouted one of the deacons. His eyes glimmered, and his hands moved like the wind as he sent beam of qi after beam toward Gu Suihan’s various internal organs and joints, then tapped the area between the young man’s brows repeatedly, even as he watched on in horror.

“Get me a soul lantern!” the deacon shouted in a stern voice. He slowly moved his finger away from Gu Suihan’s face, and a faint gray mist followed his finger.

The other deacon quickly made a hand seal and led that wisp of soul fire into the lantern. He thrust the hand seal out, and the mysterious runes on the surface of the lantern started moving.

There was a small cracking sound as the soul fire fell onto the middle of the lantern-like it was a spark and gave off a faint glow.

“Greetings, Senior Master!” Jingjing had full control over Gu Suihan, who had now given up trying to escape. His body bent over against his will, and he fell to his knees before a portrait.

Crack! Just before Gu Suihan’s knees hit the floor, the portrait suddenly started giving off beams and beams of sword will. Brilliant flashes filled the air, and the beams seemed almost real.

At the same time, the old man holding a sword and walking in the air in the portrait seemed to have come to life as he turned to stare at Gu Suihan.

The old man had a steely gaze, but there was now a tinge of fear in them.

“What’s going on?”

Everyone was up in arms. Nothing like this had ever happened in the history of the sect.

The portrait began to flap loudly even without the presence of wind. Everyone watched in shock as it rolled itself up, fell onto a table, and trembled like it was alive.

Not only were the disciples completely stunned, but even the two deacons had a puzzled look in their eyes.

Just when they were all unsure of what to do, the portrait suddenly shook violently. “I…cannot allow him to kneel to me! I can’t take it!” an old and reverent voice slowly resounded from within.

“There’s a spirit inside the portrait?”

“Who in the world is this young fellow? The senior master actually says he can’t accept a kneel from him!”

“Could this fellow be a powerful cultivator in his previous life, who lost his memories when he was reincarnated?”

“Maybe.”

Many of them agreed with this possible explanation.

Craaack! A small crack appeared in the heavy seal inside Gu Suihan’s consciousness. A dim and darkened gaze that seemed able to see anything it wanted slowly peeked out from the crack.

“Ahh!” Gu Suihan howled in pain. He felt like lightning had struck his brain and his entire body was cold all over. As he writhed about in pain, his hair faded to reveal his impossibly perfect face.

“He’s so pretty!”

“That’s…a man?”

Exclaims went through the crowd as both men and women alike stared in wonder at the pale-faced Gu Suihan.

Nobody had noticed that inside Gu Suihan’s half-closed eyes, frightening fireworks were exploding within, as though the stars in outer space were crashing into one another and smashing to pieces.